Universe Hardhead came hammering on my door this afternoon. I haven’t seen any reviews or picture galleries and thought I’d take a few.
His bio and stats:
Hardhead lives to fight-so much so that life without a war seems pointless to him. He would be the perfect soldier if only he could just take orders. Unfortunately, he’s too stubborn to follow any command he doesn’t agree with, and too dense to appreciate the subtlety of strategy. Why engage in a flanking maneuver, he reasons, when there’s perfectly good open ground over which to mount a charge? More than a few battles have started because he couldn’t wait for the commanders to make their plans, and simply charged is, guns blazing.
Stregnth-9
Intelligence-6
Speed-5
Endurance-9
Rank-5
Courage-10
Fireblast-8
Skill-7

G1 style Starscream, Smokescreen, and Dinobot are advertised on the bottom of the box. I wonder if that means they plan on offering more of this particular wave when Hardhead becomes widely available? There’s also an ad for the red Powerglide. Do want.

I’m digging the tank mode, the colors really work. But please note, Hardhead becomes even more entertaining if you listen to the original Ninja Turtles cartoon opener while fiddling with him. We couldn’t have asked for a better update to the turtle tank

The shield rocks, perfectly in line with Hardhead’s mentality. I forgot though, wasn’t there a Decepticon that had Autobot notches stamped on him… am I thinking of Movie Brawl?

The new colors really do a good job distinguishing him from the Onslaught mold. Unlike the box art and pics though, the autobot insignia is not on the left shoulder, but the right. I kind of prefer this, it helps make him stand out from Onslaught. Also, the front windows and his visor are not green tinted, I’m presuming that was an effect of whatever photoshopping they did to alter the original box art and pics.

My timing is terrible, I couldn’t grab a pic of him with the eyes lit. But they’re red like Onslaught’s. It’s almost too bad they didn’t replace his red LED with a blue or green one, but I’m sure someone in Radicons will probably make that swap. He also had the same sounds as far as I can tell.
A new head would have done wonders, but technically speaking, the current one is pretty close to the original G1 model.
Of course people are more familiar with the cartoon and comic version, but, just sayin’

Some other minor things I noticed. Differing from the box art/pictures, Hardhead’s mini-cannons are beige and not black as advertised. I also noticed that (on mine anyway) they do not fit snugly in the sockets like Onslaught’s. Just as a test I plucked one out of Onslaught and tried to fit it into Hardhead’s port with the same result. I think it might be the wiring pushing forward a bit and preventing a snug fit. Again, something that might have just happened with mine, but when these come out you might want to check and see if they’re jutting a bit out of their holdings before you buy.

A personal ARG here: As a Roadbuster enthusiast, it still bothers me that this is not Universe Roadbuster. I (and I’m sure many others) pegged Onslaught as a shoe-in for a repaint of the guy as soon as pics surfaced! But we’ve had two other incarnations of him that are pretty close, they just miss the mark-Animated Magnus would be perfect with a new head if you ask me, and for the love of pete, why haven’t the KO people scaled *up* the Roadbuster recolor of Cyberton Defense Hot Shot?

Anyway, I give Universe Hardhead an 8 out of 10. Outside of a totally unique mold, this is as good as it gets.

I had some issues getting the gate that folds to hold the extra leg wheel in robot mode snapped in tight, but that may vary from figure to figure. Aside from that and the mini cannons, he seems pretty close to the original in terms of quality. No mold degradation yet

I'm torn on this guy. It doesn't reall evoke hard head to me at all. It looks like Onslaught with a new paint job. This mold looks far too much like onslaught to be someone else like Cyclonus.

Click to expand...

See I'm on the opposite end of that thought. I've never really seen Classics Onslaught as Onslaught... I accept that this is how he's been updated, but to me this mold (like Classics Grimlock) is one of those molds that works better as almost anyone except the character it was originally intended for. To me this is a much better Hardhead than it is an Onslaught.
As for Cyclonus, I think the only thing that really holds him back is the distinctive head. WhiteMocha's Botcon 2010 ideas thread does a pretty good job showing how Cyclonus can believably be made into other characters with a quick head swap.

That shield looks awesome! I have Onslaught though, and I'm not likely to get an identical Autobot unless he's on some kind of huge clearance. (Also got white Powerglide...would have slightly preferred the red but the white is fine and for half off I shan't complain.)

The old Universe toys on his box are an interesting touch. I got a slightly used SS off EBay...it was a good price but I may be kicking myself if the shelves suddenly o'erflow with new ones. Kinda doubt it though.

Thank you so much for the review. I like a good recolor, especially when it's enough to distinguish itself into another character. Onslaught is a tough cookie to do, but when done right, it's really worth it.

As for WhiteMocha's thread..............he needs to send some of that brain power to Hasbro......I mean really.

Heh, thanks for the compliments about my other thread, guys! I just came to see the Hardhead pics, I didn't expect to make a cameo!

Anyhow, for the most part I like Hardhead. I can buy that the head looks enough like the toy version to pass (though I do miss the little cat-ear wings that his G1 helmet had). It does seem fairly distinct from Onslaught, even if, objectively speaking, his color layout is a bit weird. I don't think I like the black shield.... it's such a big overpowering shape, and Hardhead never really had such a big swath of black in his design. I think I would have preferred a green or tan shield.

Still, overall I'm digging him, and will definitely be buying him. Thanks for the review, these are the best and clearest images I've seen of him yet!